Well Naked, this IS the Coffee Shop where the specified subject matter is "everything and anything." One single thread on the subject of politics hardly seems improper or excessive. The thread has been popular and a considerable range of political viewpoints have been expressed and debated in a very civil manner.

No one will force you to state your "strong viewpoint". For that matter, no one will force you to open the thread and read the posts.

Several of us have had views that we chose to express here. Is it OK with you if we continue to do so?

For one, I've enjoyed reading this thread (it passed the time while I downloaded some vids on dial-up!!). Politics is a highly objective and convoluted subject. I wouldn't even begin to state a view on the current political state of America. As for the UK, we have a wonderful tradition here that can't be overturned. Every prime minister who ever served ended up being disliked and even hated. It's the nature of the electorial process. Prime Ministers and their governments eventually get voted out because they aren't liked any more. That's what happens. So every outgoing prime minister is seen as a failure. The only one who I can think of who was considered a winner, historically speaking, was Winston Churchill, but after the war he was voted out. I do, however, think that it's always very easy to be an arm chair politican. It's very easy to sit back in our homes and see, usually in retrospect, what our beloved leaders have done wrong. There's a marvellous film, The Seduction of Joe Tynan, where Alan Alda plays a politician determined not to be corrupted. But he is, and he can't help it, because that's the nature of politics. You can't help but end up making deals. The Allies won World War Two because they agreed to allow the Soviet Union to have Poland and half of Germany. That was the deal. And so we ended up with the Iron Curtain and the Cold War. America was able to invade Sicily because the American Government made a deal with the Mafia which resulted in the Allies pushing up through Italy, giving Mafia leaders positions as leaders and mayors of towns; as a result, the Mafia became strong again. But the Allies managed to occupy Italy which was essential to winning the war. Okay, those are extreme examples. Maybe if weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq, Bush and Blair might be seen as heroes, although there would still be the mess that's been created; Iraq simply can't be a democratic country. So Bush and Blair's failure is going to be their legacy. Now Blair is doing all he can to try different tactics because no doubt he doesn't want to be seen as a failure. I only know I prefer doing what I do and wouldn't even want the responsibility of being a prime minister or a president because clearly it isn't as easy as we think it should be. And the last time an American President tried to make the right decisions, he got killed for it. I'm inclined to think that event changed history, and if that hadn't happened we'd all be in a different place now. Maybe for the better, maybe for the worse, but I can't help wondering where that place would be.

Okay, my vids have finished downloading.

Politics and geopolitics are certainly areas where high principle must often be subordinated to expediency. The American dealings with the mafia in Sicily are certainly well documented, as is the American government's alliance with the mob in New York City to insure efficient and uninterrupted operation of the docks through the war years.

Maybe the ultimate irony of World War II involved the fact that the two greatest monsters of the twentieth century, Stalin and Hitler, happened to be on opposite sides (after Hitler broke his agreement with Stalin and invaded Russia). So, we allied ourselves with one monster (Stalin) to defeat the other (Hitler). And the long, dangerous 50 year struggle of the Cold War resulted. And the irony of this was certainly not lost on Churchill, who hated Bolshevism long before Hitler came to power. But he knew that Hitler must be destroyed at all cost, and so was forced to make his pact with the devil.

I would enjoy a jack off chat with someone of the opposite political persuasion to me, providing it was done with a degree of humour and with the main objective to be to get each other off

I like being the beta male in any jack off situation and having my worldview used in that would be a turn on (being called naive, simplistic, a cuck, etc.)

This isn't me putting down the gauntlet for anyone, really, but I wouldn't be put off jerking off with someone with a very different outlook on things to me, the common bond is our enjoyment of wanking after all

How liberal of me!

Nothing wrong with expressing a political view point as long as it's done in a civil manner and with respect for differing oppionions